In May 1973 Margaret Court, at the time the world's No. 1 women's tennis player, lost a challenge match against former men's Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs in what was dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes", with Riggs winning surprisingly easily. I say "surprisingly" because at 55 he was old enough to be Court's father; his Wimbledon victory had come as long ago as 1939, before Court was even born.
Who would now defend the honour of women's tennis? Step forward Billie Jean King, the world No. 2, even though she had previously dismissed Riggs's challenge to Court as an undignified gimmick. The early seventies were a period when the leading professional female players, King foremost amongst them, were agitating for the right to receive the same prize money as the men, and King was clearly irritated by Riggs' frequent sexist comments about female tennis players. The film tells the story of the second "Battle of the Sexes" between Riggs and King.
The film also deals with the private lives of the two protagonists. Their "Battle" came at a time when both were having problems in their marriages, although for different reasons. King had begun a lesbian affair with her hairdresser Marilyn Barnett, although the film suggests that her husband Larry treated this with philosophical detachment. Riggs had become alienated from his wife Priscilla because of his compulsive gambling, although he took the view that he did not have a gambling problem because he never bet more than he could afford to lose and, in any case, generally won more than he lost.
Emma Stone in the leading role suffers what, in many other biographical films, would be a significant disadvantage, that of not looking anything like the character she is portraying. Here, however, that does not matter so much because King's public profile was based on a distinctive hairstyle and an equally distinctive pair of oversized spectacles, something few other professional sportswomen wore. All Stone needs, therefore, is a brunette wig and specs and... hey presto, Billie Jean!
The film-makers sometimes try to pretend that they are making a serious film about an event which played an important part in winning equality for sportswomen, although they never really have an answer to the argument that King's initial feelings about Riggs were actually correct and that the two "Battles of the Sexes" were indeed an undignified gimmick. Riggs probably had no strong views one way or the other about how much prize-money women players should receive, but he was as addicted to publicity-seeking as he was to gambling, and saw the two matches as a lucrative way of keeping his name in the headlines. His provocative comments ("putting the show in chauvinism", as he put it) may well have been made with the express purpose of goading King into accepting his challenge.
In many ways the film is as much a light-hearted comedy as a serious celebration of sporting feminism. This is achieved in two ways. The first is by treating Riggs as essentially a figure of fun. I have only seen Steve Carell in one other film, the serious drama "Foxcatcher" (in which he was excellent), but I understand that in America he is best known as a comedian, and here he gives a superbly comic performance, making Riggs a manic, wisecracking joker. (There is one very funny scene when, forced by Priscilla to attend a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, he enrages the other participants by telling them that their problem is not that they are gamblers. Their problem is that, unlike him, they are unsuccessful gamblers).
The second way in which the film-makers lighten the tone is by not telling the whole truth about King's romance with Marilyn Barnett. That affair could, in fact, have served as the subject-matter for a film in its own right, although it would of necessity have had to be much more serious than "Battle of the Sexes". King might today be regarded as a lesbian and feminist icon, but during her playing career she was never open about her sexuality, largely because she feared that the sponsors might pull out of the women's game at any hint of scandal. After the events depicted here, she broke off her relationship with Barnett, who in 1981 tried unsuccessfully to sue her under the "palimony" laws. Barnett eventually attempted suicide, an attempt which left her paralysed. Although King admitted sexual intimacy with Barnett she tried to pass it off as an isolated fling and did not "come out" about her lesbianism until after her divorce from Larry and her retirement from professional tennis. There is, needless to say, no reference to these matters in the film.
"Battle of the Sexes" is in many ways an enjoyable period romp, enlivened by Carell's lively contribution, although the way in which it glossed over Marilyn Barnett's tragic story leaves something of a sour taste in the mouth. Yet I can understand why the film-makers were so reluctant to explore that story, quite apart from the possibility of their being hit by a libel suit. The film received largely positive reviews from the critics, yet was not a success at the box office. It would appear that even during these supposedly liberal times there is little public appetite for a light-hearted movie with a lesbian theme. There might be even less appetite for a serious movie with a lesbian theme. 7/10
